Bosses
Bosses are a type of Campaign duel unlocked by beating 20 missions within a level. Progress towards this is shown by the red bar at the top of the Map. Properties Boss stations are significantly larger than standard stations (4x4 vs 2x2). They are equipped with 4 Autocannons, a Base Shield, and have a highly increased energy generation - often getting multiple Capitals within the first minute. To compensate this, the player's starting energy is 2000. This dramatically increased energy generation on both sides makes fighting bosses typically quite different from fighting normal enemies, even of the same color. Enemy bosses will build up their bases quickly, but it is important to note that they will use up their area is approximately twice as large as the player's default quickly, as well as often building outside of the range of their default base shield. All boss capitals are unshielded. Beating a Boss gives a reward of up to 30 bars of platinum and raises the current level by one. Strategy There are three Boss Factions: Red, Green, and Yellow. Each has their own style and loadout, meaning what works for one faction may not work for the other two. Orange, Purple, Infest and Cloud do not currently appear as Bosses. Bosses are arguably the hardest fights in the whole game. While you start with 2000 energy, the AI's sometimes ludicrous speed means that beating a Boss requires a lot of planning, pausing and maybe even resetting the campaign if you don't get a lot of Asteroids for metal. A good early defense and economy setup is essential. As all boss capitals come unshielded, a good source of freeze effect will go a long way towards sustaining one's defenses. Common Strategies Turret Rushing''' ''' Up to a certain point all bosses can be successfully Turret Rushed provided they spawn close enough. Yellow is less vulnerable to this, as they start with multiple Phalanx towers from rather early levels. Bomb Rack Rush * You need range range rof / iridium Bomb Racks for this. Put down a laser as well to take out stray fighters. Maybe a repair turret in case of damage. Use 3 supply tech for constructor or primer / expansion tech for range boost. Artillery Rush * You need rof rof iridium/ EMP Artillery and 4 supply tech. Use range range bomb rack to supplement offense and laser. Void Lance Rush * Starting with 7 extractors, and nothing else, you wait until you have 225/ 281.25/ 337.5 metal (depends on constructors needed), and about 300 energy. One can also start with 13 or 14 miner bays instead of extractors, if one has exceptional miners. Place cloaked VL right next to opponent base. Make sure no tactical shields are in the way (if so one may need to put down emp bomb racks or emp sd turrets to break the shield), and let the VL kill the base. A cloak+rof VL is optimal, this allows for 2 shots. If one does not have a cloaked VL, one can substitute a cloak field auxillary. For more info on turret rushing bosses, see Silyland's Boss Turret Rushing Guide. Turtling Turtling will work against both Yellow and Red (Red up to level 25 or so) Bosses. * Spawn many phalanx, some freeze Autogun / Autocannons, and Biolabs. Use either base shield or Hyper Repair to sustain more damage. This is actually the most reliable strategy of all boss techniques as it does not require as many specialized mods and timing. * Red bosses can also be turtled up to level 25. However, you need a greater amount of Biolabs, better Miners and more repair turrets in order for this to work. Red Red cannot be turtled past level 25 or so due to a massive fire rate buff in the trident that no amount of phalanxes can stop. Red is the easiest faction to turret rush due to having low ranged turrets. Void Lance rush is also very dependable and does not require as specific mods. Green Green cannot be turtled due to massive rapier swarming, laser turrets, and Spartan OHKO. Turret Rushing may need some repair turrets / insurance micro since laser was buffed. Usually VL rush is the best way to beat them. Yellow Yellow uses phalanx, so cannot be turret rushed. Other options: VL rush, turtle (as seen in video). Yellow is actually easier because it is the one of the only bosses that can be turtled. Having decent phalanx and freeze autogun/ autocannon, biolab, and at least 10 reactor is essential for turtling to work. ________________________________________________________________________________ Video/ Image Links * Yellow boss turtle : https://www.youtube.com/watchv=8nSBmjM2O8Y * Red boss turtle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1qg7G--CNM * Green boss bomb rack rush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zxDYsCPcIs * Red boss vl rush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w-ZV6S5Ud8 * Green boss artillery rush: http://imgur.com/a/Io8Bs